ORDER OF THE
INTER-AMERICAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS
OF MAY 29, 2013
PROVISIONAL MEASURES WITH REGARD TO EL SALVADOR
MATTER OF B. 1
HAVING SEEN:
1.
The brief of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (hereinafter “the InterAmerican Commission” or “the Commission”) received on May 27, 2013, and its annexes,
in which it submitted to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (hereinafter “the InterAmerican Court” or “the Court”) a request for provisional measures, pursuant to Articles
63(2) of the American Convention on Human Rights (hereinafter “the American
Convention” or “the Convention”) and 27 of the Rules of Procedure of the Court
(hereinafter “the Rules of Procedure”), for the Court to require the Republic of El Salvador
(hereinafter “El Salvador” or “the State”) “to adopt immediately the necessary measures to
protect the life, personal integrity, and health of B., in view of the urgent and imminent
risk of irreparable damage as a result of the failure to implement the treatment indicated
by the Medical Committee of the ‘Dr. Raúl Arguello Escalón´ National Maternity Hospital”
(hereinafter “the Medical Committee”). In addition, the Commission asked that the InterAmerican Court “in its order on provisional measures, […] establish that the
implementation of this treatment cannot be delayed by administrative or judicial measures
or decisions,” and that it “establish in its order that immediate and effective compliance
with the provisional measures that it orders cannot, in any way, result in the exercise of
the State’s punitive powers.”
2.
The following background information presented by the Commission in relation to
the request for provisional measures:
i) “B. is a 22-year old woman who suffers from systemic discoid lupus erythematosus
aggravated by lupus nephritis. In mid-April 2013, she was in the twentieth week of her
second pregnancy. According to the three ultrasounds that have been performed, the
fetus is anencephalic (without a brain), an anomaly that is incompatible with life outside
the uterus.”
ii) “On March 22, 2013, the Head of the Legal Unit of the ‘Dr. Raúl Arguello Escalón´
National Maternity Hospital of El Salvador, Jorge Alberto Morán Funes, wrote a note to
the Coordinator of the Child and Adolescents Protection Board, Julio Antonio Rivera,
indicating that B. suffered from a serious condition called systemic/discoid lupus
1
At the request of the Inter-American Commission, the identity of the woman for whom the provisional
measures are sought is kept confidential, and she is identified with the letter “B.”